2008 Tire Rack One Lap of America: We Race a Nissan GT-R

Godzilla goes to war at eight racetracks in the 2008 Tire Rack One Lap of America.

If youve been following the web chatter about the 2009 Nissan GT-R, you probably already know that the long-awaited Japanese supercoupe made its U.S. racetrack debut during last weeks 2008 Tire Rack One Lap of America competition.

And if you know that, you might also know that the GT-R finished 11th overall, in a field of 72 entrants.

This has led to a lot of dialogue in the blogosphere, much of it along the lines of If this car is so hot, whyd it finish only 11th? Why didnt it win the whole thing?

As the pilot during the weeklong trekthe 25th renewal of this unique American motorsports classicI can tell you that, yes, the 480-hp GT-R is a very hot ride, and, yes, it should have placed higher.

Details in a minute. But for them to make sense, a word on how One Lap works.

Dating to 1984, One Lap of America is the street-legal sequel to the old Cannonball Run, which was decidedly not street legal.

Both events were created by Car and Driver alumnus Brock Yates, and both emphasize extreme driving. But in the One Lap version, all the max drivingwhich is the basis for all the scoringtakes place on racetracks.

Scoring is based on the NASCAR system. The top car in each run gets the maximum points, which this year was 360, a figure that was based on the total number of entries. The next car gets five fewer, and so on down the line.

The 25th anniversary run started and finished on the Tire Rack skidpad in South Bend, Indiana, and covered more than 4000 miles in between, visiting eight motorsports facilities for 17 timed events, most of them on road-racing circuits.

And, as always, the event drew some serious tuner cars: a pair of Mongoose prototypes, replicas of the mid-engined Chevy GTP racers from the 1980s; a factory Dodge Viper ACR entry, massaged by Texas tuner John Hennessey; a turbocharged Corvette Z06; a 700-hp turbo Acura NSX; a new Dodge Challenger SRT8; a Ford GT; and a highly developed Porsche 911 Turbo that has carried Mark DaVia to the One Lap championship five years straight. And these only hit the highlights.

There were also three other Z06 Corvettes, a trio of Porsche 911 GT3s, assorted BMW M3s, a slightly older Dodge Viper, and an Ultralite roadsterinspired by the old Lotus Super 7that was amazingly quick on tight courses.

No shortage of very fast traffic. Nevertheless, even though the GT-R achieved zero points for one roundIll get to that in a minuteit was good enough to wind up at the edge of the top 10.

It was also good enough to finish ahead of all the naturally aspirated Z06 Corvettes, two of the GT3s, and all but one of the M3s.

The GT-Rs strength is fast tracks, and nowhere was this more apparent than Road America, the great four-mile road course in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.

The super Nissan hurled itself down Road Americas long straights with an intoxicating zeal, handled its fast turns with confidence-inspiring predictability, and stopped from high speedsover 150 mph on the speedowith gratifying repeatability.

At the end of the three-lap runthe standard One Lap road-course time trialthe GT-R had the fourth fastest time of the day, trailing only the ACR Viper, the championship-winning Porsche Turbo, and the turbo Z06 Corvette.

The GT-R was faster than either of the Mongeese, although to be fair both were hampered by various developmental problems, some of which became serious as the weeklong campaign went forward.